Wellington Grey writes: "A Penn State study on homework find that more homework is not helpful:

"Instead of improving educational achievement in countries around the world, increases in homework may actually undercut teaching effectiveness," says David P. Baker. "Most teachers are not making efficient use of homework, they assign homework mostly as drill, to improve memorization of material either in math, science or the humanities."

My school has a policy that recommends about six hours of homework a night. A lot of this work seems like busy work that is not always beneficial to the students. What do you think is the appropriate amount of homework? More importantly, what would you do to improve the quality of homework? What kind of activities should the students be engaging in that aren't just math-drills?"

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Homework can be a great thing, but can also be a complete waste of time, depending on what subject you are teaching and who you are giving it to.
For a student in advanced mathematics who is striving to succeed and distinguish themselves from his or her classmates, homework can be an excellent tool to explore material in more depth and to increase an already high level of understanding.
But for the typical student, and in particular for students who are struggling to master material, maths homework can be